This book is a result of research undertaken on the subject by the scholars associated with the IDSA project on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK)—also known as Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK)—which includes both the so-called “Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)” and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), was legally a part of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which acceded to India in October 1947. The authors of this book seek to provide a critical analysis of the politics of the above mentioned two regions within PoK; throw light on the genesis and evolution of various political parties and interest groups, and acquaint the readers with different personalities playing important role in politics therein. The main aim of the publication is to help the scholars, analysts, and policy-makers to understand the dynamics of the political systems in PoK, the complex interaction of these systems with the government in Islamabad and the responses of the local leadership to Pakistan’s strategy of keeping them under strict control in the name of representative governance over the last 70 years.

Kashmir has been in turmoil since the past three decades or so. The state of dissatisfaction in that part of a free, democratic, secular Indian nation is a rather perplexing development, the question being that how can any well groomed group of citizens, anywhere in the world, want to complain about their political rights in such a free and tolerant environment.  The answer is not straightforward.